“When we found out we could make models by drawing and printing them ... it opened up all kinds of posibilities,” said Len Hill of NAMJet, a company in Benton that manufactures water jets. (Michael Pirnique)

Most 3-D printers create objects made of ABS plastic. Manufacturers frequently use the machines to quickly make prototypes or test models, which in the past would have to be built by hand. The parts shown above were created in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s engineering department. (Luke Jones)

NAMJet LLC of Benton one of the first companies in Arkansas to use 3-D printing – a process in which thin layers of precisely placed plastic filaments are built up one at a time to create an object from what was just an idea designed on a computer.